Bishop had originally been required to surrender, following his bail, on 4 December 1986 but at the last minute he was ordered to turn himself in at 10 a.m. the day before. Mr Oxford had, in the meantime, decided he could not act for Bishop so he was accompanied by his new dapper, confrontational London solicitor, Ralph Haeems. Bishop must have wondered why he was being brought in early.
The formalities out of the way, Bishop was marched to an interview room where DC Dave Wilkinson went through the motions required when someone surrenders to custody: ‘I am arresting you for the murders of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway. You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but anything you do say may be given in evidence.’
Bishop, predictably, replied, ‘I’m not guilty, leave it out.’
With those words he was formally back in custody. He might have guessed what was coming next but, still, it would have hit him like a thunderbolt.
‘You are charged that between 8 October 1986 and 10 October 1986 at Brighton in the County of East Sussex you murdered Karen Hadaway, contrary to common law. You are further charged that between 8 October 1986 and 10 October 1986 at Brighton in the County of East Sussex you murdered Nicola Fellows, contrary to common law. Do you wish to say anything? You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but anything you do say may be given in evidence.’
He was taken straight to a cell, with no prospect of bail this time.
The following morning, he was driven the short distance in a police van to Hove Magistrates’ Court for his first court appearance. Arriving a full ninety minutes early, he was met with an angry crowd already gathering in the rain, hoping to glimpse the monster who had robbed two girls of their innocent lives.
These initial remand hearings are brisk and businesslike. They are no different whether the defendant is a suspected murderer or shoplifter. In front of a small audience, including two of Bishop’s brothers but not the victims’ families, the charges were put. He was not asked to plead but the outline of the case was read and after confirmation that there would be no bail application and a passionate assertion of his innocence by his solicitor, Bishop was remanded in custody.
As he was taken to Brixton Prison in a police convoy, in a last flex of their muscles, two of his brothers made a futile attempt to follow it. It was not clear what they intended to do but the accompanying officers from the convoy gave them short shrift and they headed off home.
Being formally charged with the murder of two little girls is as bad as it gets. Bishop knew there was no way he was going anywhere, until he had been tried – even if then. In the meantime, locked up in prison as a child killer, his life would be hell. Despite prisoners’ own protestations of innocence, they are rarely afforded the benefit of the doubt by their fellow inmates. Notwithstanding the inconvenient fact that Bishop was, in the eyes of the law, still presumed innocent, his fellow lags would convict him as soon as the prison gates slammed.
His life from now on was in serious danger. Almost all sex offenders, and those accused of offences against children, spend their lives protected in segregation. Even then they are not immune from the threat of merciless beatings, faeces in their food, gang rapes, being slashed with makeshift knifes or being killed themselves.
Bishop’s family visited occasionally but most of his time in Brixton Prison was spent locked up in his cell. He was scared witless. Already branded a child killer, he complained his food was spiked with broken glass or phlegm as he collected it from the grinning orderlies. He claimed prison officers threatened him and that he was beaten with a lump of wood on one occasion. On another he was lucky when a jug of scalding water narrowly missed him. He said he was attacked when he answered a warder back. He had no friends and no allies. He lived a nightmare. Convinced that there was a concerted effort to poison him, he lived on nothing but the fruit, biscuits and crisps his family brought him. The most he dared eat from the kitchens was a handful of chips.
While the wheels of justice ground on in the background, the people of Brighton and Hove breathed a sigh of relief, content that finally the police had got their man and life could return to a semblance of normality. Yet if the period between arrest and charge is frenetic, the year before trial is frantic for police, prosecutors and defence alike.